Culinary Adventure Spring / Summer

In the words of the Toronto Star, Winnipeg’s “bragworthy food scene mixes hipster, local, aboriginal,
Jewish and French with assorted multicultural eats,”
pretty much nails it.

Although, one thing they left out is our vibrant patio
scene, which is surely where you’ll want to spend a lot
of your stay this spring-summer.

For the highest concentration of patios in the city, take
your taste buds to Corydon Avenue, an area that was
once considered the city’s Little Italy. Don’t miss The Roost (651 Corydon Avenue), a second-floor-situated
small plates and cocktail bar that features a patio
perfectly nestled above the action on the street below.

A few blocks away is where you’ll find a few of the
city’s best restaurants, all within a stone’s throw of one
another. For starters there is The Grove (164 Stafford)
— a popular neighbourhood haunt where the food
goes way beyond standard pub fare. Two doors down
is Close Company (256 Stafford Street), perhaps
Winnipeg’s smallest restaurant where the share plates
are divine and the cocktails equally good, and Máquè (909 Dorchester Avenue) is just one more door over. This
Asian small plates restaurant by nationally acclaimed
chef Scott Bagshaw was long listed by Air Canada’s
enRoute magazine as one of Canada’s best new
restaurants (2016). All three spots have lovely little patios
ideal for people watching below the neighbourhood’s
elm canopy.

Osborne Street, Winnipeg’s bohemian-chic
neighbourhood, has recently been the scene of a
restaurant renaissance, with some great new rooms
opening in both Osborne Village proper and further
down the road in South Osborne. The benchmark
in the area remains to be Segovia Tapas Bar (484 Stradbrook Avenue), a Spanish restaurant with
a quaint patio that is a perennial on “Canada’s best
restaurant” lists. While just around the corner and
hidden in a basement is Sous Sol (22-222 Osborne —
go behind the pink pet store), the city’s most eclectic
French restaurant and speakeasy featuring a menu of
small plates by Gold Medal Plates Winnipeg winning
chef Michael Robins.

A few minutes away down South Osborne is where
you’ll find The Oxbow (557 Osborne Street) — a new
joint venture between some of The Roost’s owners
and Bergman Farms, and Chaeban Ice Cream (390 Osborne Street) — a brand new spot owned by
a Lebanese/Syrian couple that makes use of unique
ingredients in its ice cream like rose water, beets, orchid
powder, sour cream and ricotta cheese. Of course, you
can’t mention ice cream in Winnipeg — particularly in
this neighbourhood — without talking about Bridge Drive-In (766 Jubilee Ave), the city’s busiest ice cream
shop where the soft serve creations are mountainous
(they also have a food truck that you can regularly find
downtown).

Speaking of downtown, that’s where you’ll find the
majority of the city’s 50 or so food trucks, which regularly
line up along Broadway from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. For a
full list of them, go to PegCityGrub.com, our culinary
resource that contains chef profiles, culinary news,
and categorical restaurant reviews on only the best
restaurants in the city.

The Forks Market has also become one of the city’s
best destinations for foodies. All under one roof you can
now find food kiosks from some of Winnipeg’s best food
trucks and restaurants, along with another outstanding
new Scott Bagshaw restaurant called Passero, which
serves modern Italian small plates along with a fine
selection of wines. The Market also contains The Common, where you can grab a flight or glass and
then proceed to go shopping almost anywhere on the
Market’s first floor. It’s totally brilliant.

St. Boniface, Winnipeg’s French Quarter, also has no shortage of excellent eateries, many of which —
including Promenade Café and Wine (130 Provencher
Boulevard), Chaise Cafe (271 Provencher Boulevard),
and Marion Street Eatery (393 Marion Street) — have
patios that will ensure your day goes swimmingly.

If a rooftop patio is on your wish list, we highly
recommend Forth (171 McDermot Avenue), a hip multiuse
space that has both a basement cocktail bar and a
rooftop cocktail bar, along with fabulous snacky food at
the main floor café from one of the city’s tiniest kitchens.
Another cool cocktail bar for small bites is Langside
Grocery (164 Langside Street) which will make you
feel like you are in Brooklyn, NY, while Cordova Tapas
and Wine (93 Albert Street) is owned by two young
Europeans and is a great spot to nibble while sipping
from an excellent wine and beer list. All three of these
spots are open late too.

Finally, we can’t forget about all of the city’s breweries,
which have been popping up regularly in the past two
years. In the Exchange District, Little Brown Jug (336
William Avenue) has both delicious beer and a patio
with artificial grass at your feet. Barn Hammer Brewing (595 Wall Street) is a personal favourite of our staff;
Torque Brewing Co. (330-830 King Edward Street) is
one of the city’s largest and has been bestowed with
numerous brewing awards; Trans Canada Brewing (1290 Kenaston Boulevard) brews the most beer —
offering a little bit for everyone from double IPAs to
pilsners; Stone Angel Brewing Co. (1875 Pembina
Hwy) crafts a fine selection — with up to eight beers
and a few ciders coming up on tap, while Brazen Hall Kitchen & Brewery (800 Pembina Highway) and One Great City (OGC) Brewing Company (1596 Ness
Avenue) have great food programs to accompany their
beers.

And let this just be a sampling of some of the city’s
newer and more acclaimed rooms. Winnipeg is home to
more than 1,100 restaurants, and on nearly every street
corner you’ll be able to find something to fit your fancy
— from ethnic hole in the walls in the West End, to finer
dining in the Exchange’s Theatre District, to all manner
of pastry shops and third wave coffee shops throughout
all our diverse neighbourhoods.
Happy eating!